David Korten writes: In a September 22, 2008 interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!,
Senator Bernie Sanders famously said that if a bank “is too big to
fail, it probably is too big to exist.” That should be a watchword
slogan of any effort to fix the financial system. Major responsibility
for the financial collapse rests with the deregulation process that
allowed for the consolidation of banking power in the hands of Wall
Street. Reversing that process should be an immediate priority.

Before Wall Street there was Main Street

I
recall the time when banks were community institutions that were
limited by law to being single outlet community service organizations.
It was called unitary banking. Each bank was rooted in and expected to
serve the needs of its community. Deregulation unleashed a wave of
consolidation through mergers and acquisitions that shifted the focus
from serving Main Street to making as much money as possible for Wall
Street. To have a financial system that works, we must reverse the
deregulation process and restore the concept of community banking. Nothing less is going to solve the problem.

Wall Street holds government hostage

In a March 8, 2009 CBS Sixty Minutes interview with Sheila Blair,
head of the FDIC, it was noted that when one of the smaller banks
fails, it is taken over by the FDIC. The depositors are protected by
the FDIC. The owners, however, lose everything.

In
the interview with Blair, which comes toward the end of the segment
documenting the FDIC take over of a small failed bank, she notes that
the FDIC doesn’t have the jurisdiction to take over the large Wall
Street financial conglomerates that bear the major responsibility for
the financial collapse. As the moderator points out, the owners and
managers of the small banks are left with nothing. The big banks get
government bailouts.

Of the latter Blair says,
“Going forward, I think we need to really review the size of these
institutions and whether we should do something about that, frankly… I
think that may be something that Congress needs to think about… I think
taxpayers rightfully should ask that if an institution has become so
large that there is no alternative except for the taxpayers to provide
support, should we allow so many institutions to exceed that kind of
threshold?”

It is encouraging that this question
is being raised by a top government official in the financial sector as
it is exactly what Congress needs to address. Unfortunately, the FDIC
is not acting on the advice of its own head. Rather than breaking up
the bank it took over in Chicago and selling each of its five branches
individually to local investors to operate as local community banks,
the FDIC quickly sold the whole operation to a larger regional bank,
moving in exactly the opposite direction from that Blair is herself
suggesting. Of course moving toward greater consolidation under a
bigger established bank is a lot easier for the FDIC than selling
individual banks to individual investor groups that may have very
little banking experience. Moving to deconcentration and
decentralization takes serious effort. … (03/19/09)
more…

BBC Human Science — Mental powers start to dwindle at 27 after peaking at 22, marking the start of old age, US research suggests.

Professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia found reasoning, spatial visualisation and speed of thought all decline in our late 20s.

Therapies designed to stall or reverse the ageing process may need to start much earlier, he said.

His seven-year study of 2,000 healthy people aged 18-60 is published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

To test mental agility, the study participants had to solve puzzles, recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols. The same tests are already used by doctors to spot signs of dementia. In nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22.

The first age at which there was any marked decline was at 27 in tests of brain speed, reasoning and visual puzzle-solving ability. Things like memory stayed intact until the age of 37, on average, while abilities based on accumulated knowledge, such as performance on tests of vocabulary or general information, increased until the age of 60.

Professor Salthouse said his findings suggested “some aspects of age-related cognitive decline begin in healthy, educated adults when they are in their 20s and 30s.” (03/19/09)
more…

BBC Nuclear Science — Two decades after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, radiation is still causing a reduction in the numbers of insects and spiders.

According to researchers working in the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl, there is a “strong signal of decline associated with the contamination”. The team found that bumblebees, butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies and spiders were affected. They report their findings in the journal Biology Letters.

Professor Timothy Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, US, and Dr Anders Moller from the University of Paris-Sud worked together on the project. The two researchers previously published findings that low-level radiation in the area has a negative impact on bird populations. “We wanted to expand the range of our coverage to include insects, mammals and plants,” said Professor Mousseau. “This study is the next in the series.”

Professor Mousseau has been working for almost a decade in the exclusion zone. This is the contaminated area surrounding the plant that was evacuated after the explosion, that remains effectively free of modern human habitation.

For this study they used what Mousseau described as “standard ecological techniques” - plotting “line transects” through selected areas, and counting the numbers of insects and spiders webs they found along that line. At the same time, the researchers carried hand-held GPS units and dosimeters to monitor radiation levels. “We took transects through contaminated areas in Chernobyl, contaminated land in Belarus, and in areas free of contamination. What we found was the same basic pattern throughout these areas - the numbers of organisms declined with increasing contamination.”

According to Professor Mousseau, this technique of counting organisms is “particularly sensitive” because it can account for the changing pattern of contamination across the zone. “We can compare relatively clean areas to the more contaminated ones.” (03/19/09)
more…

BBC Computer Science — Super-fast quantum computers are now a step closer to becoming a reality, thanks to a breakthrough by scientists.

Edinburgh and Manchester University researchers have created a molecular device which could act as a building block for super-fast computers. They have created components that could be used to develop quantum computers, which can make intricate calculations faster than conventional machines.

The academics used molecular scale technology instead of silicon chips. They achieved the breakthrough by combining tiny magnets with molecular machines that can shuttle between two locations without the use of external force.

The manoeuvrable magnets could one day be used as the basic component in quantum computers.

Conventional computers work by storing information in the form of bits, which can represent information in binary code - either as zero or one. Quantum computers will use quantum binary digits, or qubits, which are far more sophisticated as they are capable of representing not only zero and one, but a range of values simultaneously. Their complexity will enable quantum computers to perform more quickly than conventional machines. (03/19/09)
more…

Working together! Humanity will require a Synergic Conversion by 2030. … BBC Future Science – Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned.

By 2030 the demand for resources will create a crisis with dire consequences, Prof John Beddington said. Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion, he told a conference in London. Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he added.

“It’s a perfect storm,” Prof Beddington told the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference. “There’s not going to be a complete collapse, but things will start getting really worrying if we don’t tackle these problems.”

Prof Beddington said the looming crisis would match the current one in the banking sector. “My main concern is what will happen internationally, there will be food and water shortages. We’re relatively fortunate in the UK; there may not be shortages here, but we can expect prices of food and energy to rise.”

The United Nations Environment Programme predicts widespread water shortages across Africa, Europe and Asia by 2025. The amount of fresh water available per head of the population is expected to decline sharply in that time. …

Prof Beddington said, “We can’t afford to be complacent. Just because the high prices have dropped doesn’t mean we can relax,” he said. Improving agricultural productivity globally was one way to tackle the problem, he added.

At present, 30-40% of all crops are lost due to pest and disease before they are harvested. “We have to address that. We need more disease-resistant and pest-resistant plants and better practices, better harvesting procedures. Genetically-modified food could also be part of the solution. We need plants that are resistant to drought and salinity - a mixture of genetic modification and conventional plant breeding. Better water storage and cleaner energy supplies are also essential.” (03/19/09)
more…